一种中华鲟的末日 一个国家的悲哀

In the English naturalist Isabella Bird’s 1899 account of her travels on the Yangtze River, she noted that fishermen regularly caught sturgeon “weighing from 500 to 700 pounds” off the port in the town of Jingzhou.

英国博物学家伊莎贝拉·伯德(Isabella Bird)在她1899年长江考察的记载中，描述了距离荆州港口不远的渔民经常打捞到“500到700磅重”的鲟鱼。

Such abundance is now a distant memory. Pollution, decades of overfishing and the cleaving of the Chinese sturgeon’s habitat by massive dams mean the 140 million-year-old species faces extinction, Chinese scientists say.

如此富饶的资源现已是一个遥远的记忆。中国的科学家说，污染、几十年的过度捕捞，加上中华鲟的栖息地被巨型水坝分割，意味着这个存在了1.4亿年的物种濒临灭绝。

A recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences found that the sturgeon in the Yangtze were now probably sustained solely by artificial breeding.

中国水产科学研究院最近的一项调查显示，长江中的中华鲟只剩下来自人工繁殖的。

“It is the first time that we found no natural reproduction of the endangered sturgeons since records began 32 years ago, when a dam was built,” Wei Qiwei, the principal investigator of the study, told Xinhua, the state news agency.

这项研究的主持人危起伟对国家通讯社新华社说，自32年前一座水坝建成后，“这是有记录以来，首次发现中华鲟没有自然繁殖活动现象。”

Many sturgeon species around the world are endangered. The scaleless fish, which have rows of bony plates and barbels that dangle before their mouths, can live for decades and are slow to reach maturity. That makes them particularly vulnerable to pollution and poorly regulated fishing.

世界上许多地方的鲟鱼物种濒临灭绝。这种无鳞鱼长着列骨板，嘴前有触须，能活几十年，需较长时间才能成熟。这使它们对污染和监管不力的打捞尤为脆弱。

The sturgeon of the Yangtze have been further devastated by the damming of the river. Chinese researchers say construction of the Gezhou Dam in 1981 blocked upstream migration of the Chinese sturgeon, reducing its breeding ground from 350 miles of river to just four. The problem was exacerbated by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric station, in 2003.

长江中的中华鲟由于水坝建设受到进一步破坏。中国的研究人员说，1981年建成的葛洲坝阻挡了中华鲟向上游迁徙，将其自然繁殖区从560多公里的河道减少为不到7公里。这个问题被三峡大坝的建设进一步加剧，2003年建成的三峡大坝是世界上最大的水力发电工程。

China established programs to breed sturgeon in captivity in the late 1970s, and more than nine million juveniles were released into the river from 1983 to 2007, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

中国在20世纪70年代后期开始在渔场人工繁殖鲟鱼，据国际自然保护联盟(International Union for Conservation of Nature)统计，从1983至2007年间，共有900多万条鱼苗被释放到河里。

In the 1970s, there were some 10,000 Chinese sturgeon in the Yantgtze, according to the I.U.C.N.’s Red List of Threatened Species. Their number dropped to about 2,000 in the mid-1980s and to fewer than 300 by 2007. Now there are most likely fewer than 100, Mr. Wei told Xinhua.

据国际自然保护联盟发布的濒危物种名单，在20世纪70年代，长江中有1万多条中华鲟。到了80年代中期，它们的数量已下降到大约2千条，2007年的数量则不到300条。危起伟对新华社说，现在的数量很可能不到100条。

Researchers found no Chinese sturgeon eggs downstream from the Gezhou Dam from Oct. 31 to Dec. 28 last year, he said. The lack of natural reproduction means the fish risks extinction without artificial intervention.

他说，从去年10月31日到12月28日，研究人员在葛洲坝下游没有发现中华鲟自然产卵。他说，没有自然产卵，意味着如果不加强保护工作，这种鱼将面临灭绝危险。

The environmental harm to the Yangtze has already extinguished another of its iconic creatures. The baiji, a white, largely blind, freshwater dolphin that was found only in the Yangtze, was declared extinct in 2006. The last known baiji died in captivity in 2002.

对长江环境的危害，已让其中另一个标志性的生物灭绝。只在长江中才有的白鳍豚，是一种大型且视觉很差的淡水豚，它已经在2006年被宣告灭绝。人们知道的最后一只白暨豚于2002年在饲养场死亡。